Konoha's Tragic Orange Beast
by Nate Grey
Summary: Or why Lee taking Naruto under his wing could potentially be a bad thing for them both.


Notes: If I can make even one person cry as much as I did while writing this, I'll be happy.

Summary: Naruto grasps his dream, with the help of an unassuming, lifelong friend.

**Konoha's Tragic Orange Beast**

**A Naruto Oneshot by**

**Nate Grey (xman0123-at-aol-dot-com)**

* * *

"Enough."

Hyuuga Neji relaxed his stance, frowning as the heavily bruised form of Uzumaki Naruto glared defiantly up at him from the grass.

"I'm not done yet!" Naruto growled, stumbling drunkenly to his feet. The blond gave Neji his best glare, which only reopened the cut above his left eye, dousing the quivering blue orb in crimson. "You said we'd go all day, and we'll go all day!"

"And so we shall, Naruto-kun!" cried Rock Lee as he rushed forward and punched Naruto so hard that the blond went flying into a tree.

Neji shook his head and walked away, not about to admit out loud that he had other commitments. He'd just assumed that even Naruto wouldn't be able to get back up after the beating they'd given him. Tenten had quit the first time Naruto dodged wrong, and one of her kunai nicked his temple. He'd been fine, being Naruto, but there had been SO much blood, and Naruto had only made it worse by woozily insisting he was okay and giving her a clumsy hug. Tenten hadn't even noticed the blood he'd gotten on her: she'd just burst into tears and run off. Even Neji eventually grew dissatisfied with simply beating relentlessly on Naruto, and wondered what sort of monsters lived and bred in Konoha that they could do the same for most of Naruto's life.

But Lee was different, or rather, he was so much like Naruto that Neji could never truly understand either one. Neji knew, for example, that after he'd finished with his clan duties for the day, and checked on Tenten, he would have to come back to the training field after dark and drag Lee and Naruto away. Otherwise, the two simpletons would keep fighting all night, until they passed out from exhaustion and blood loss.

* * *

"Those IDIOTS!!! They were out here all night?!"

Hinata winced as Sakura stomped past her, fully intending to bash in the brains of the two combatants. She knew she was taking her own life in her hands by doing so, but Hinata bravely reached out and grasped the angry medic-nin's arm. "Wait, Sakura-san. You can't stop them."

Sakura whirled on her, green eyes flashing with fury. "Why not?!"

Hinata winced again as both Naruto and Lee connected with simultaneous, identical right hooks, and hit the ground facefirst. "Because they're done already..." she sighed.

Muttering curses under her breath, Sakura walked over and knelt beside Lee, correctly assuming that Hinata would want to look after Naruto. "They're so stupid! Why do they keep doing things like this?!" Sakura froze as she suddenly felt an incredibly strong dose of killing intent, but when her head jerked up in alarm, Hinata was calmly applying some bandages to Naruto's head. "Hinata-chan, did you feel...?"

Hinata paused and stared at her curiously. It was only when Sakura turned away that the Hyuuga heiress's face darkened slightly. "They do it for you," she muttered, tenderly running her fingers through Naruto's sweaty blond locks.

* * *

"I hear you've been improving your taijutsu by leaps and bounds, Naruto," Tsunade said, eyeing the other blond across her desk suspiciously. "So what's the deal? What have you been doing?"

Naruto blinked slowly. "What do you mean, baa-chan? Training, like always!"

"Come on, don't lie to us, Naruto-kun," Shizune added, making a show of feeling up his arms. "I can tell you're way more defined than you were a month ago. Or do I need to remind you who conducted your physical the last time?"

He turned bright red and jumped away from her. "I'm serious! I've just been training!" In true Naruto fashion, he quickly changed the subject. "Hey, baa-chan! Let me wear your hat for a few minutes!"

They all expected Tsunade to say no, as she always did. So all three were surprised when she wordlessly tossed the Hokage hat to him, landing it neatly on top of his head. "You drop it, you die."

"WOW! Thanks, baa-chan!" Naruto gave her a blinding grin and ran over to admire himself in the mirror.

Tsunade muttered something, though it was easy for Shizune to spot the way her lips turned upward slightly. "Don't get cocky, brat. I only did that because you're finally starting to take your dream of being Hokage seriously. Keep it up, and I might even let you try on the robes next time."

* * *

"Well, it's still good that you're working on your basics, brat," Jiraiya said, chuckling at the scowl Naruto gave him. "There's no point in teaching you anything new if you can easily be taken out by something old, right?"

* * *

Staring into the face of Orochimaru, Naruto knew he was about to die.

The Snake Sannin's head jerked forward, and Naruto's fist lashed out to meet him halfway with blinding speed. In an instant, he had reduced Orochimaru's skull and brain to little more than purplish-grey paste on the cave wall.

Naruto stared at the mess for several moments, dragged himself out of the cave, and promptly threw up. He wiped his mouth with his good arm, and grinned sickly as Jiraiya landed in front of him. "Hey," the blond laughed weakly, "remember how you told me never to use the Rasen-Shuriken again?" At the Toad Sannin's grave nod, Naruto held up his ruined arm. "I think I just punched through about seven chakra gates, and Orochimaru's head was at the end. So it's good news, bad news, I guess. It is bad that I can't feel this, right?" He waved his arm a little, turning green as a large chunk feel off.

"Well," Jiraiya said slowly, scratching his head bemusedly, "if you ask me, that you can't, can only be good news..."

* * *

"The fox can't keep up with you constantly breaking through the chakra gates, Naruto," Tsunade sighed. "And that alone should tell you just how stupid this all this. If Kyuubi can't fix this kind of damage consistently, nothing can. If you keep this up, you will DIE. Or just your body will, and I'll stick your pea brain inside a glass jar for future medic-nin to gawk at."

"No problem, baa-chan!" Naruto laughed confidently. "I can totally handle this!"

* * *

Naruto looked up from Neji's steaming corpse, just in time to see the second Chidori rip out of Lee's back. Sasuke tossed him away like so much trash, and then came the crackling promise of the third.

"Let's go to hell together, fox," Naruto whispered, just before he threw his entire body through the first seven gates, and then, seeing the Mangekyou whirling in Sasuke's remaining eye, plunged through the last as well.

* * *

Naruto carried Neji and Lee back to Konoha in the middle of the night, and asked that no one say anything about the successful mission right away. The council was predictably furious, but Neji had thought of all of this in advance. So just before Sasuke had killed him, he'd taken the last Uchiha's right eye. Naruto found it in a sturdy little water jar within Neji's kunai pouch, and had been sorely tempted to stomp on it every step of the way home.

Even with the eye, the only thing that saved Naruto from immediate execution was the Hyuuga Clan. They had largely revised their opinion of him after Orochimaru's death became public, and after all, it would be a bit difficult for their heiress to marry him if he were dead.

And even after the pain he'd suffered through on the mission, somehow it hurt Naruto worse when, the day following Hinata's private proposal, Sakura asked him out for the first time.

It was strangely easy to point her in Kiba's direction, though, because by then the Inuzuka had become far more interested in protecting Sakura than Naruto had been in a long time.

* * *

When Tsunade publicly named Uzumaki Naruto the Rokudaime Hokage, he bawled like a baby.

Everyone just assumed he was really, really happy.

But only Hinata had been with him an hour earlier, when Neji and Lee had been added to the list of Konoha's fallen soldiers.

He'd cried harder then.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto was easily the least powerful Hokage in Konoha's history. On the way to achieving his dream, he'd lost the use of much of his left arm, the demon sealed within him, his career as a shinobi, and all but the faintest traces of demonic chakra, which did little more than allow him to live to the ripe old age of ninety-six. But even at the height of his reign, it was rumored that any skilled genin could've performed ninjutsu with more flare, and easily killed the Hokage.

This was actually true, but no one ever knew it for certain. For one thing, the restored Military Police, brimming with Hyuuga loyal to Naruto alone, wouldn't have allowed it, and for another, even at his weakest, Naruto could still punch like a beast.

**The End.**

* * *

Endnotes:

This story is based, rather heavily, on the idea that one or both of the people sparring with Naruto's shadow in the 9th Opening are Lee and Neji. At least, I think so, and I've watched it a bunch of times just to be safe. Although setting my media player up to repeat "Yura Yura" the whole time I wrote this may have warped my brain a bit. I can just see them trying to take away Naruto's dream whenever I hear that song...

Of all of Naruto's friends, Lee is the only one I can see having the patience, dedication, expertise and recklessness to improve Naruto's taijutsu to such a dangerous level.

If there are mistakes, and I suspect there are, I couldn't see through my tears, dangit.

But a minor thing to point out: Hinata isn't being weird, she just a got a little confidence from being around Naruto and Lee so much. Although that in itself could be considered weird.


End file.
